With distraction abound, the path to success has never been more complicated. People come to us all the time feeling frazzled, led astray, or even ineffective. But the one thing we have learned after talking to thousands of entrepreneurs, devoting our lives to the craft of coaching, and truly researching and understanding success - is that the true secret to success is one thing: consistency. Consistency of what in particular? Well, honestly, that part doesn’t even really matter. Whatever you consistently do, will breed results. And, the key to consistency is all about designing your environment so you can consistently perform.
So, here are our 3 tips to effectively design your environment for success.
Focus On Your Strengths
Wouldn’t consistency be easier if you actually enjoyed what you were doing? Of course, it would! This is the logic behind focusing on your strengths. Put simply, we all have natural talents. These are the way we naturally think, feel, and behave. When we invest in those natural talents both with time and effort, they develop into strengths. Because these things come naturally to us, they require less effort, focus, or even thought. We do them well with great ease and find them more satisfying. As a result, we’re far more likely to do them regularly. In fact, at Compass South, we believe in this so much that it is the root of our coaching and training programs where we put all our clients through the CliftonStrengths® Assessment and work with them on developing a plan for how they can grow their business doing more of what they love. If you’re interested in getting assessed and talking through your results but not ready for coaching, you can order your assessment here.
Know When To Invest
But don’t I need to improve what I’m weaker in? The answer is: not necessarily. You should know what your weaknesses are, but unfortunately, almost every training or school of thought is geared toward overcoming your deficits, which is actually counterintuitive. The science is there to back me up. If you consider that a strength only becomes a strength when a natural talent is invested in/on; then the case is clear. Take for example Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. Jordan has an innate athletic ability and invested heavily in his pursuit of basketball. What many may forget is that Jordan also made an attempt at the same success in both baseball and golf, neither with as impressive results. His relative success in both of those pursuits is likely due to his natural talents, but without the investment of time, he was unable to truly make them a strength. The key to truly leveraging your strengths is all about knowing when to hold them and when to fold them.
Manage Your Weaknesses
The last element of effectively designing your environment is to manage your weaknesses. While we all have weaknesses, the most successful people spend less time focused on what they’re not skilled at and more time on everything else. Sure, sometimes you have to do things you aren’t as strong in but effectively designing your environment is all about how you’ll react - not just the action.
For example, on my own CliftonStrengths® Assessment, I rank very high on consistency. This means that I thrive off routine, regiment, and structure. (Yes, I know this isn’t all that shocking). To invest in my strengths, I work hard to make sure I have a very structured schedule, my life is fairly predictable, and that I work to try and eliminate surprises. Conversely, I rank very low in adaptability. You may be wondering how I navigate life with a wife and two kids and struggle to adapt. The key is, I don’t. I leverage my consistency strength by working to develop Plans B, C, D, etc. so that when the need to adapt arises, I have likely proactively planned for how I will handle the situation. What my brain naturally struggles with is the sense of being unprepared or the unknown. By working to think through a number of scenarios, I simply shift plans rather than truly adapt which allows me to function more effectively in those moments that otherwise, might throw me for a loop.
Regardless of what you’re doing - you are in control of your environment. The people we choose to surround ourselves with, the setting in which we operate, and our response to events - they’re all within our control. And the best part? So is your success…